Church Planters in Sikkim Receive Business Training, Fellowship

Small Business Development: Equipping an indigenous church planter to run a small business promotes sustainability

Evangelists and church planters in India struggle to bring in an income and provide for their families. Global Disciples (GD), an NGO, came forward to fill this gap by training Christian leaders in Sikkim in northeast India for small scale businesses.

"We sat with them for a little over a week and we trained them on business principles, things that God has given into their hands that they can do — not necessarily to be business people, but to be church planters who are able to have a way to feed their family," said Tim Kennell, GD, according to Mission Network News.

"Also it gives them an identity in some of the communities where maybe it's a little more difficult to go in as a missionary, but you can go in saying you are doing a small business and then in a quiet way reach the community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and start a church or a fellowship," Kennell added.

Amid pressure from the government, business training and devotional lesson on risk, faith, and obedience provided encouragement for the Christian leaders in Sikkim.

In mission fields, it is important to train and set up local Christian leaders who will reach their own communities with the Gospel since they understand the local community and all the risks they undergo.

"They're able to understand these fears, they're able to understand the difficulties in a much greater way than we're able to understand them," said Kennell.

"The Church in India, as I talk with the believers, they're not afraid of what may be around the corner for them. In fact, they say that whatever happens, they believe that the Church will grow," he added.

Kerala church on Aug. 5 has continued to criticize National Commission for Women's (NCW) recommendations to abolish the practice of confessions in churches, calling the recommendation as a move against Indian culture of tolerance.